1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to practice and drills directed to improve athletic performance, and more specifically to apparatuses and methods used to train ball-control skills during volleyball practice.
2. Art Background
Achieving perfection in any sport requires diligent practice requiring a player to repeat a move or play many times before the required level of speed, accuracy, and consistency has been achieved. In order to obtain the focused practice needed to improve the player's level of performance specific drills are created and overseen by a coach.
In the game of volleyball, the skills of serving, passing, blocking, defense, setting, and spiking require diligent practice to raise an individual player's level of performance or a team's ability to interact as a coherent whole. An existing, wheeled, floor standing “target” has been directed to the volleyball need. Such a floor standing target is currently sold by Excel Sports Products under the name “Catch It™.” Existing devices such as the Catch It™ provide an obstruction on the court floor due to the nature of the floor standing design. The mechanically rigid nature of the floor standing target presents a hazard to players moving quickly about the volleyball court floor. Human contact with such a structure can result in injury to the player with a subsequent loss of play time.
Additional problems presented by a floor standing unit are the requirements for a large amount of storage space in which to store the target after training has ended and a lack of visibility across the court due to the structure required to support the target off of the court floor. The existing Catch It™ target also lacks an adjustable target area. An adjustable target area is desirable and would allow players having a range of skills to use the target while allowing the best players to become even better by aiming for an increasingly small target area.
The existing targets designed for volleyball are also not very usable for other sports that are played on a court floor with a court net dividing the court, such as badminton or tennis.
What is needed is a light weight, portable, storable, adjustable target for practicing skills related to games played on courts with court nets.